EU Deals: EU Amazon price comparison

Amazon runs several localized stores around the world which may have different items on offer and may also price the same item differently.

Companies benefit from a global economy, more so than consumers. But you and I can benefit from a global economy as well, at least when it comes to making purchases in different regions of the world that benefit us financially.

I mentioned this first in 2009 in a story entitled How Consumers Benefit From A Global Economy. It comes down to comparing pricing -- including shipping, handling, and maybe import tax -- to buy certain items on the cheap.

This works really well in Europe as you can buy in any member nation of the EU. It so happens that Amazon runs main stores in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and several other European countries. Pricing in these stores may differ, sometimes by a large margin.

EU Deals

EU Deals is a price comparison extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that is powered by the service of the same name.

The extension works automatically once installed in Chrome; there are no options or customizations that you can do.

EU Deals looks up the item in other Amazon stores, and displays its findings on the Amazon store page you are on right away.

The result is either that the item is available for a lower price at another Amazon Store in the EU, or that the price is at its lowest already.

The extension takes shipping and different currencies into account according to the developers of the extension.

This add-on compares the prices, calculates shipping fees and converts currencies to get you the lowest Amazon price in Europe.

It is still necessary to check out the offer. First to make sure that the service matched the right item, then that the item is available and indeed for the listed price.

A quick test revealed that this is not always the case. The item on the screenshot for instance, the Surface Book by Microsoft, was listed as being nearly €1300 cheaper in the UK than in Germany. I followed the link and the one item that beat the price by more than 50% was a marketplace offer. The seller had only seven ratings of which 57% were positive. Other items checked out fine however.

Closing Words

EU Deals checks the price of items on Amazon's five stores in the European Union currently. This makes sense logistically,but it would still be handy if the service would add other regional stores to the mix.

The price of an item may be that cheap in the US for instance that it would make sense to order it there even though you'd pay more for shipping and probably also import tax.

As far as features are concerned, I'd like to see an option to block marketplace offers from the price comparison.

We need your help

Advertising revenue is falling fast across the Internet, and independently-run sites like Ghacks are hit hardest by it. The advertising model in its current form is coming to an end, and we have to find other ways to continue operating this site.

We are committed to keeping our content free and independent, which means no paywalls, no sponsored posts, no annoying ad formats or subscription fees.

If you like our content, and would like to help, please consider making a contribution:

About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

Comments

in Canada they are not allowed to buy from the usa amazon (unless they drive there) same with many other tech stores even though there is a free-trade agreement. Also not counting the exchange rate the prices at the Canadian amazon is about 30% higher for many items.

Your link to the addon: “This addon cannot be installed on Firefox because it appears corrupt” – after a warning this addon hasn’t been reviewed by Mozilla, and should not be installed on Firefox 43 and later….running 50.1.0

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.